Lately, I have been in a nostalgic mood. Maybe it is because I have been sifting through all my thousands of old digital pictures. Every now and then, I go through my pictures to see how much my daughter has changed over the years. Also, seeing myself change. I’ve decided to once again, make sure that I have all of my pictures backed up on DVD, external hard drive and online storage. Which brings me to the subject of online photo storage. One of my favorite sites is shutterfly, so I decided to write about what shutterfly is and what they offer. So here we go.
Shutterfly is a site that offers easy ways to enhance, share and store your digital photos. Not to mention that they offer reasonable prices on prints. Not only can you print 5×7, 8×10, etc., you can create your own photo books, greeting cards, calendars, and much more. They offer free unlimited online photo storage (which doesn’t require you to purchase a certain amount to keep from deleting your photos), free online photo software to organize, edit and share your collection, photo borders that enhance your prints (free), you can also personalize the back of your prints with messages for free, and much more. Oh, and they also offer a free iPhone app to upload your photos while on the go.
To sign up for shutterfly, just click on the ‘Sign up’ link and you will be directed to a sign up page. All you do is enter your first name, last name, an email address, create a password (then verify it), accept the terms and conditions, and hit the ‘Join Now’ button. When you sign up, you will receive 50 free 4×6 prints, of course you pay for any taxes and shipping and handling fees. But hey, that’s a pretty good deal.
Once you’ve signed up, log into shutterfly. You will see your home page, which consists of your recent albums, your projects, your shared pictures, videos and projects, your community and at the bottom of the page is more information consisting of links to basic account information like your account and order history, special offers, etc. On the right side of the page are links for shutterfly advertisements. On the top of the page in the tabs are My Shutterfly (which is home), My Pictures, Share, Community, and Store and then there is a search bar at the top right corner.
Here is a breakdown of what you may see in your shutterfly site:
MY SHUTTERFLY (tab)
Here, you will find your recent albums, projects, shared pictures, videos, and projects, and your community.
MY PICTURES (tab)
Here, you will find all of your pictures. You can choose to view your pictures from the hierarchical folders or from the thumbnail folders. You can upload more pictures on this page, edit pictures, organize them and much more.
SHARE (tab)
Here is where you can view your own share site information. That is if you have created a share site. To create your own share site, click on the Create a new site button on the top right. You can also find information find information to get more out of your share site.
COMMUNITY (tab)
Here you will find public galleries from other Shutterfly users.
STORE (tab)
Here is where you will find items like Photo Books, Cards and Stationery, Calendars, Photo Gifts (mugs, picture frames, etc.) and more.
That pretty much sums up what shutterfly can do for you. I of course use other online photo storage sites like snapfish, Kodak gallery, photobucket, flickr and a few others. Shutterfly just happens to be my top favorite. I have had wonderful experiences with the site and their prints come out excellent. Not to mention that they are very quick with the delivery. That’s my take on shutterfly. To see shutterfly, click on the icon below. To download the free iPhone app, click on the iTunes icon below. If anybody would like to share their experiences with shutterfly, please feel free to comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers.
